Data map: Piracy in East Africa and the question of jurisdiction

Over the last decade, the international community has faced a serious challenge: 21st century piracy off the coast of East Africa. In 2008, navies and taskforces began to be deployed to deal with the ever-growing problem. Questions of jurisdiction started to plague courts around the world, and the international community was left wondering how to prosecute these suspects, and where to send them?

Our Data Map documents 69 events of capture upon the high seas, dating between 21st January 2006 and 18th January 2014. We estimate that 722 suspects were captured during these operations, and 639 of these suspected pirates were prosecuted in trials taking place in 16 different countries. A total of 21 countries have been involved in the cases listed in the map, either at capture, at prosecution or both including: Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Russia, Seychelles, Somalia, Somaliland, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, The Netherlands, U.A.E, UK, USA and Yemen.

Our report ‘The Counter Piracy Programme’ accompanies our data map. The report assesses some of the human rights concerns that arise with regards to this wide-reaching maritime programme, looking, in particular, at the prosecutions in Kenya, Seychelles and Mauritius.

Our data has been compiled from media reports and publicly available sources